Q&A with composer Joe Lawrenson
We spoke to composer Joe Lawrenson about his recent album launch, and discuss influences and inspiration.
Joseph Lawrenson is an accomplished songwriter, composer and producer. His background is as a songwriter and pianist in the band Dancing Years; his focus is now on composition for screen. He has worked with several DEBUT artists, and attends DEBUT’s acclaimed series of Secret Concerts at Shoreditch Treehouse.
Q&A
I Still Love You is about the heartbreak at the end of a long and beautiful relationship. It’s about the uncertainty, indecision, and remorse. It’s about that awful yet blissful longing.
“It’s vital for my lyrics to reflect and honestly expose the emotive identity of each piece of music. For example, Ólafur’s 0040 is tragically beautiful, and my lyrics attempt to evoke that sadness and beauty”
What inspired Songs for Film?
As I listened to my favourite pieces of classical music, words would form over the melodies. I could hear the vocal lines in my head.
Some classical music is just irresistibly lyrical. In that sense, I couldn’t resist turning these pieces in to songs. They already sounded like songs to me.
Give me some background on your words for the three key pieces in ‘Songs For Film’ - what inspired the lyrics?
Zero Zero Four Zero tells the story of someone cheating on their partner. From the temptation to the heartbreak and the devastation of the ultimate betrayal. I took inspiration from a passage in William Faulkner’s Light in August: ‘You will tell me that you have just learned love; I will tell you that you have just learned hope.’
Winter daydreams is a love letter to my wife. A few months after we first met, in the grips of a whirlwind romance, we decided to cycle from Lake Lugano to Nice. The memories of that cycle trip playback in my mind like a beautiful film. And this song is an attempt to re-create that magic.
More generally, what's your favourite film/music moment?
My favourite three film score pieces are Ennio Morricone’s Cinema Paradiso, Deborah’s Theme and Gabriel’s Oboe. They are beautiful and moving. And they retain their beauty even when separated from the films they feature in; they are timeless pieces of music within their own right.
Why these pieces?
They are all irresistibly lyrical and undeniably beautiful. These pieces already feel like songs, just patiently waiting for the right words to be placed on top.
Were the words a reaction to the music or written separately then drawn in?
The words are written in response to the music. I’ll study the scores, reduce them to piano, and play them repeatedly until I find the right lyrics.
In certain instances, the context in which I discovered the piece of music informs the lyrical content. For example, I discovered Vladimir Martynov’s The Beatitudes whilst watching Le Grande Bellezza. The lyrics jump straight into Sorrentino’s beautiful version of Rome, using the opening passage of the film as a starting point ‘climbing stairs in the midday heat, to Gianicolo passed the cannon police’
Your biggest influences?
(my composition) takes influence and inspiration from a mixture of modern classical composers like Ólafur Arnalds, Vladimir Martynov and Max Richter, older composers like Tchaikovsky, Chopin and Bach, and film composers like Ennio Morricone and Nicholas Brittel.
When i’m struggling for inspiration, I flick through books for inspiration - authors like William Faulkner, Graham Greene, Tolstoy, Daphne du Maurier and Somerset Maugham.
…and songwriters?
My song writing process takes influence and inspiration from songwriters like Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, Randy Newman, Loney Dear and The Blue Nile.
Moving forward - who would you like to work with?
It would be a dream to work with the director Paolo Sorrentino. His work has always resonated with me. His films leave you with this feeling that life truly is a beautiful thing.
I would absolutely love to work with singer/songwriter Anais Mitchell. I think it’s amazing what she has done with the musical Hades Town. I admire her abilities as a lyricist, songwriter, and vocalist. I’m inspired by how she turned her song writing craft towards musical theatre – which is a transition I hope to explore further down the line